Claim to Fame

Little is known about Katherine, other than the fact that she only mostly answers to her name when it is called. She's that new girl in the city who is trying hard to make a life for herself but always seems just out of reach and extremely distant. For one so jumpy, she shows no signs of being afraid of creatures that go bump in the night.

Biography

Elisabeth Dawn Lavalley was born in Chicago to parents Amy and Donald Lavalley. Her life, from birth right up until her teenage years was basically what one would consider completely normal. She lived in a suburb of Boston and attended public school. She was never overly popular but wasn’t an outcast, either. Just as with any child, she grew into and out of several different interests, retaining some memories of all of them but not enough of any of them to really make use of them as skills.

Once her teenage years hit, she wasn’t suddenly struck with some onset of powers or new information. The most taxing thing in her life is that her parents decided that she should get a summer job to learn responsibility and to earn her own spending money. Elisabeth wasn’t disrespectful towards her parents in the least before this so it wasn’t something that was to be considered a punishment. When faced with the decision, in fact, the teenager agreed whole heartedly and thought it would be a great idea.

After an extensive search brought no businesses actually willing to hire the sixteen year old, it was arranged that she would work on the farm of a family friend. The farm wasn’t overly far away, but it was agreed that Elisabeth would spend the entire summer there and then return shortly before school was scheduled to start.

Farm life for a city girl was certainly not easy, to say the least. She had to adjust to a new time schedule, and to the needs and desires of many different types of animals. It could have gone much better at first, but eventually Elisabeth began to gain her footing. By the end of the summer she was basically as good as any farm hand could be, even if she might not be as strong as some of the men around. Even though her time to work had come to an end, she visited the farm regularly during the year, having grown fond of everything and everyone there.

The following summer came and past the exact same way. She began to make friends with those on nearby farms and in the local town whenever she visited. But as with the year before, it eventually came to an end.

Even though the what was to be her third summer on the farm was the summer before college, Elisabeth still spent the time working. By then it became as much fun as it was work. This summer, however, was not quite the same as those previous. During the night she heard a noise coming from the barn and decided to go and investigate. What she found was a man who appeared slightly older than she was in with the cows. Before she could discover what it was he was up to, she tripped over a nearby pale and alerted him to her presence.

The young man, just as panicked as Elisabeth, abandoned his goal for the evening and turned to run. Two things stopped him, one of which was the lack of desire to be caught fleeing in the way that he was about to. The second was that there was a young woman on her butt in the straw, rubbing her leg where it might be injured. The intruder abandoned his goal of flight and in turn went to her to make sure she was alright. When she questioned his motives he merely said that he was dared to go cow tipping and only made it so far as actually looking a cow face to face. As far as she was concerned it seemed reasonable enough to her so she let it go, but told him that he likely shouldn’t be around.

As this young stranger helped her back to the house, he explained that he worked second shift so primarily only had time to go do things late in the evenings. This she accepted and while part of her knew better, she invited him to come back again sometime. Only without breaking and entering and spooking the cows. So several more times over the course of the summer the two would meet up in the barn and talk, getting to know each other rather well. There was something different about this man, she knew, but she just couldn’t put her finger on what it was.

By the time the summer ended, Elisabeth and her new friend, Isaac, had gotten rather close. She explained that she would be attended college to become a vet tech during the year and wouldn’t be able to visit him as she had been. He swore to her that he would visit her as often as he could. He kept that promise.

The visits weren’t often, at least not at first. She was trying to adjust to college life and surely it must have been a commute for him to get there. Even so, she would find him at her dorm at least once a month, always at night due to his work schedule. Throughout the school year the two began to develop strong feelings for each other, and neither shied away from this fact. As the school year come to a close and another summer on the farm was set to arrive, the visits became more and more frequent.

This is how Elisabeth’s school life continued. Work during the summer, school the rest of the year and always night time visits from Isaac. By the time her Junior year came to be, they had already admitted their feelings for each other and had grown even closer, even physically. It was around this time that the news became flooded with the announcement that vampires did, indeed, exist.

Not too long after, Isaac sat her down to explain that he was one of these vampires. At first she didn’t know what to do, being more in shock than anything. So after he left she packed up her belongings and left, to run and hide and try to figure out what to do with her life. The only place she knew to run to was the farm, so that’s where she went. It wasn’t difficult for anyone to find her, really, and find her they did.

Isaac appeared and offered to show her what his life was really like. He promised that he wouldn’t hurt her, he could never hurt her, and swore that he only drank synthetic blood. It took some convincing but Elisabeth finally did follow him home, agreeing to spend one week around him to see if she could adjust to the life she never knew that he had.

Surprisingly enough, Elisabeth found herself quite open to things, especially as he kept his word and never once put her in harm’s way. With her so willing to learn and accept him, he made plans to explain to her what claiming was, and see if she would be open to the idea. Unfortunately for both of them, someone beat him to the conversation.

Another vampire, Vanessa, had been monitoring the situation. She knew that vampire relationships were frowned upon but viewed Isaac as hers. The fact that he dare snub her to be with some mortal was more than she could take. She cornered Elisabeth and explained that life as a human with a vampire was deadly, and that if she agreed to be claimed she would be protected. Wishing really only to be with Isaac, the poor girl agreed, not knowing the evil plans that Vanessa had in store.
As part of being claimed, Vanessa made sure to near torture and humiliate Elisabeth. Part of this was being branded in the center of her back, marking her as belonging to her. It was soon apparent that the plan was to kill her all along, but the sick and sadistic side of the vampire was getting her kicks out of making it slow and painful.

The claim was challenged by Isaac, which led to a feud between the two vampires. During this time Isaac slipped Elisabeth a note instructing her to run, that he would make sure that she was safe. He apologized for not protecting her as he should have and said that this would be the only way. That he would miss her but that it was for the best. Elisabeth had no idea what to do or where to go, but she knew that she did in fact have to run. So she packed a few things, withdrew all the money she had and just left.

In the course of running, Elisabeth never contacted her family. She didn’t know if it was safe, or even what to say. She never officially notified the school of her departure. She immediately bought some bleach, changed her hair color and her name. In the course of her travels she met individuals that would help her forge a solid false identity for her, in return for various methods of payment. This life was hard for her and caused her to withdraw from the normally confident and outgoing woman that she had grown to be.

Even in finding assistance from those of shady natures, Elisabeth, now Katherine, continued to move. It was a slow process as she had to be quite careful not to be caught, but eventually she made her way to Dallas. It was never an end destination for her, but rather she was starting to run low on funds and new that she would have to get a job in order to replenish that which she had spent.

She now lives in a rundown apartment in West Dallas and is on the hunt for a job. Even though she’s battered and broken, there’s a part of her that wonders if maybe this is the city where she can actually call home and start to rebuild her life. As of now she has an application in at the Rutherford Veterinary Hospital in hopes of just getting a job and trying to live.

Character Details

Elisabeth Lavalley was a young woman in her prime. She wasn't the most socially elegant woman but she was far from an outcast. She loved to go out and to make friends, and to basically just live life. Each experience was a life lesson, even if it was a task that was actually a job. School wasn't her most favorite thing ever but she did earn good marks, even if she wasn't the top of her class. During one of her jobs she found that she actually enjoyed working with animals and this is what she allowed to shape her life. She let her college studies revolve around it, and she even met her first love on the farm. All in all, Elisabeth was an average young woman with average ambitions that had only her entire life ahead of her.

Katherine is a completely different story. The young woman still holds on to her basic ethics and passions in life, but she is completely a bruised and battered woman. Any who interact with her will notice that she's shy, often times withdrawn. She will completely any task with a nod and usually with her head down. She has done some immoral things to get even this far in life, after her encounter with Vanessa. At this point she doesn't believe that she can ever regain the good standing she had in society and thus does everything she can simply to survive. Even with this being said, she has never hurt anyone or anything and will never intentionally do so. To her, she will never love again and has no desire to be close to anyone. She constantly is looking over her shoulder and fears for her life. Because of this she will always be difficult for anyone to get closed to. The paranoia over her past and her markings causes her to always wear long sleeves and pants, no matter what the weather.

Schooling

Even though she never graduated, Katie experienced a great deal of the school required to be a vet technician. Since she's changed her name it's been difficult to forge any of this experience, but she does know a thing or two and is always willing to help out when she can. It also comes in handy when she is looking for a new job.

Friends in Low Places

Okay, so they actually aren't friends. Katie has met a great deal of associates that she's been able to use to help forge documents allowing her to life her new life. Working with them always comes at a price, but she has an inside to the darker side of things.

False Identity

Katherine was not born Katherine, and she's had to work hard over the past few years to make this new identity of hers legitimate. It isn't all on the level but she at least has all the paperwork to make it look like she's always been who she claims to be.

Life's Savings

It isn't much, but she has it with her. Katie doesn't have a bank account, she doesn't really have assets. She's done most of her traveling by thumbing it and has traveled lightly with a week's worth of clothing ever since she left her old life behind. Due to this, she has money to spend, but it depletes quickly so she's constantly in need of finding work to keep her alive.

Missing Person

Katie has worked hard to change her appearance just enough so that she isn't recognized. Her case didn't catch nationwide attention but she did make the local news when she went missing. If she's not careful she may be recognized and sent home or have her home sent to her to face the music. That's something she's not ready to deal with yet.

Shady Dealings

In her travels, Katie's learned that sometimes she has to do what she has to do in order to survive. Due to this she has lied, cheated, stolen and even given sex to people in payment for other services. This is how she's developed Sino-Aids, something that she's completely unaware of.

Branded

Due to the horrible vampire Vanessa, Katie has been branded. Literally. It's quite a large brand that takes up a good portion of her back. This is rather difficult to hide and even harder to explain. So like a good battered person, she just hides it as best as she can and avoids any conversation related to it. She has another scar, one far less visible. Inside of her thigh is a bite mark from her former lover, where she had allowed him to feed off of her shortly before leaving. It is also something she plans to keep hidden.

Poor

Even though she was able to put enough down to get a very cheap, very horrible apartment, that ate up a good deal of the saves that Katie had. Due to this she has very, very little money to spend and is in desperate need of a job if she's going to be able to survive in Dallas.

Shell

Being shy is not a weakness, but Katie goes beyond being shy. She constantly lives in fear and is very much an abused woman. She hides from everything and even when around a safe environment will act like someone who has been battered. It makes it hard for her to open up to anyone, but given the fact that she's a runaway it's not always a bad thing.